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CIC2000
Dr. Peter Estibeiro: Co-Founder and Director
ExpressOn BioSystems
Access to molecular technology
Products and services for the cutting edge
of bio-science research and therapeutics
An improved process for the rapid and
efficient design of antisense reagents
that can cut lead drug development time
by over 50%
and initial drug development costs from
an average £70 million to around £5 million
enabling us to address the estimated £900 million
market for gene therapy products [USADATA.COM]
ExpressOn BioSystems
Acces s t o m olecu la r t ech n ology
What do antisense reagents do?
antisense
reagent
DNA
RNA
protein
ExpressOn BioSystems
Acces s t o m olecu la r t ech n ology
Why are antisense reagents useful?
•Pure and Applied Research
Used as research tools to understand gene function
Used for drug target validation
Human Genome Mapping Project will increase the number of potential
drug targets from 500 to 10,000 by 2010
•Therapeutics
Emerging drugs for difficult-to-treat diseases
FDA approval for first antisense drug in 1998
Heralded as the most important medical advance since antibiotics
ExpressOn BioSystems
Acces s t o m olecu la r t ech n ology
What is our improved design process?
A DNA microarray & proprietary analysis software
Can be used on standard microarray readers
Why is it so good?
•Rapid
applicable to mass screening
able to cope with number of new targets
•Efficient
higher success rate than computer-aided design
reduced downstream testing
•Cheap
uses established equipment & manufacturing processes
ExpressOn BioSystems
Acces s t o m olecu la r t ech n ology
Staged roll-out to market
Target
Customers
Market
Size
Market
Niche
Market
Share
Drug target
validation
(service)
Major pharma
R&D depts
£2.5 B
UK
annual
pharma
UK spend
Leader
within
2 years
Drug therapy
candidates
(licences &/or
partnerships)
Major pharma
Drug
development
programmes
Application
£900 M
for noncancer
gene
therapies
Brain
First to
diseases market
eg. AD
epilepsy
stroke
ExpressOn BioSystems
Acces s t o m olecu la r t ech n ology
Why will we succeed?
•Rapid, cheap and effective design process
•Aggressive share of specific market niches
geographical (UK)
biological (brain function)
•Scientific expertise
advisory panel of leading neuroscientists
•Staged roll-out provides revenue during drug development
•Already a successful company
providing contract research services in molecular biology
ExpressOn BioSystems
Acces s t o m olecu la r t ech n ology
Who are we?
•Director of Technology Development: Dr Peter Estibeiro
PhD Molecular Biology (Leicester) 1987
Senior research fellow and lecturer (Edinburgh) 1995-1999
Founder and Director of ExpressOn BioSystems 1999-
•Director of Operations: Dr Eleanor Barnard
PhD Molecular Virology (Glasgow) 1997
Research Fellow (Edinburgh) 1996-2000
Co-founder and Director of ExpressOn BioSystems 1999-
•Non-executive Director: to be announced
•Commercial Director: to be appointed in 2001
ExpressOn BioSystems
Acces s t o m olecu la r t ech n ology
Why are we here?
• £100,000 Edinburgh Technology Fund (ETF)
equity investment
By mid-2001: validated proprietary technology
portfolio of IP & commercialisation strategy
• £2 million investment
2001-2003: relocate to Midlothian biotech cluster
strengthen management team
develop proprietary software
scale-up to full commercial design process
employ additional scientific staff
ExpressOn BioSystems
Acces s t o m olecu la r t ech n ology